


hold me close, and don't let go

by untakenbeepun



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: M/M, Mild Angst, Mild Fluff, i don't know how to tag things please help, injured juno steel, peter looks after juno, post-Soul of the People, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 21:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untakenbeepun/pseuds/untakenbeepun
Summary: Peter looks after Juno after he gets hurt.





	hold me close, and don't let go

The rooms on board the ship are small, barely enough room for a bunk and a tiny washroom, but somehow, Peter finds his way into Juno’s room most nights anyway. He likes that they have to squish up close to each other, likes that he can wind his arms around Juno’s waist and hold him close to his chest, likes that, when he wakes up in the morning, he’ll wake up warm, Juno’s breath tickling his skin.

It was a long wait to see him again, but now that he was here, and real, and alive, Peter was going to do everything in his power to keep him around.

Even if it means practically bribing the ridiculous, stubborn, obstinate detective to take a nap after getting beaten up within an inch of his life.

“I don’t need to be put down to sleep like a toddler,” Juno mumbles, as Peter firmly steers him into the bunk. “M’fine.”

“Yes, darling, I’m sure you are, which explains why your one good eye is swollen shut,” Peter says, crisply.  

“I can see just fine,” Juno says.

Then he walks straight into the bedside table. Peter sighs.

He gently guides Juno down onto the bed. “Just let me take care of you, for once, would you?”

“I don’t need a nursemaid,” Juno says, sticking his lower lip out in a pout.

“Petulant child.”

Juno doesn’t dignify that with a response, and he must be tired, or in pain, because he doesn’t complain as Peter unties his shoes and helps him pull off his shirt.   

Peter momentarily forgets that Juno can’t see when he gets up off the bed to fill a glass of water from the washroom, and Juno’s voice is a touch high as he says, warily, “Nureyev?”

“Sorry, love, I’m right here,” Peter says, squeezing Juno’s hand. He reaches for the painkillers on the bedside table. “Here, take these. You’ll feel better.”

Painkillers taken, Peter tugs Juno down onto the bed, wrapping his arms around him and pressing kisses to the back of his shoulder. “You really should stop getting into these scrapes,” Peter says.

“Those guys were coming after you. I wasn’t gonna let them touch you.”

Peter sighs. “Very chivalrous, darling, but I can take care of myself.”

“I didn’t want them to hurt you,” Juno admitted.

“So you let them hurt you, instead.”

“It was... preferable.”

Peter’s teeth worry at his lip.

Juno was making progress, inch by inch, taking tiny steps to shift the static in his head. Peter had seen the progress, he’d the seen the moments when Juno valued himself, when he took steps towards wanting to _live._

Other times, like now, Juno fell back into that same pattern he’d always had, the urge to throw himself into ever danger, like he life was worth nothing. Like _he_ was worth nothing.

Peter holds him tighter.

“M’sorry,” Juno mumbles. “I know—”

“Sssh,” Peter whispers, his fingers trailing through Juno’s hair. “Just rest. I’ve got you. I’m not going to go anywhere.”

He traces kisses down the back of Juno’s neck and across his shoulders, and, ever so slowly, Juno begins to relax, drifting out of consciousness. Usually when Juno sleeps, the stresses of the day don’t quite leave him. Peter can catalogue them in wrinkles between his eyes, a furrowed brow, mumbled words in his sleep that tumble out mid-nightmare. This time, in Peter’s arms, Juno looks at peace, and Peter thinks to himself that he might do anything to get Juno Steel to feel this way all the time.

“Peter,” Juno says, stifling a yawn. “I meant what I said.”

Peter hadn’t realised that Juno was still awake.

“Mmm?”

“You really are the best thing that ever happened to me.”

And Peter knows that it’s to do with the painkillers, knows it’s because Juno’s halfway to sleep, knows that the confession would never have passed Juno’s lips if he were fully awake.

...But it warms Peter’s heart anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [bee-elzebub](https://bee-ezlebub.tumblr.com/) and on twitter at [@untakenbeepun](https://twitter.com/untakenbeepun)


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